{{Short description|American electric and telecommunications businessman}} {{Use mdy dates|date=September 2019}} {{infobox officeholder | name = | image = Harry Bates Thayer (cropped).jpg | order = 5th | office = President of American Telephone & Telegraph | term_start = 1919 | term_end = 1925 | predecessor = Theodore Newton Vail | successor = Walter Sherman Gifford | birth_date = {{birth date|1858|08|17}} | birth_place = Northfield, Vermont | death_date = {{death date and age|1936|09|03|1858|08|17}} | death_place = New Canaan, Connecticut | education = Norwich University | alma_mater = Dartmouth College | parents = | spouse = {{marriage|Carrie Motte Ransom<br>|April 26, 1887|1916|reason=her death}} | children = 3 | relations = | signature = Signature of Harry Bates Thayer.png }} '''Harry Bates Thayer''' (August 17, 1858 – September 3, 1936), was an American electrical and telephone businessman.
==Early life== Thayer was born on August 17, 1858, in Northfield, Vermont. He was a son of James Carey Barroll Thayer (1824–1897) and Martha Jane (née Pratt) Thayer (1824–1869),<ref name="HBTObit1936"/> a daughter of John A. and Sarah Pratt. His father, a son of Samuel White Thayer and Ruth (née Packard) Thayer,<ref name="Cutter1913">{{cite book |last1=Cutter |first1=William Richard |title=New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of Commonwealths and the Founding of a Nation |date=1913 |publisher=Lewis historical publishing Company |page=[https://archive.org/details/newenglandfamili04cutt_0/page/1916 1916] |url=https://archive.org/details/newenglandfamili04cutt_0 |accessdate=23 March 2020 |language=en}}</ref> owned a clothing store and was a founder of Northfield Savings Bank.<ref name="Vermont1851">{{cite book |title=Acts and Laws Passed by the Legislature of the State of Vermont |date=1851 |publisher=J. Padock & A. Spooner, printers to the General Assembly |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WcY_AQAAMAAJ |accessdate=23 March 2020 |language=en}}</ref>
He was a descendant of Alden Thayer, Governor Brewster, and other early New England settlors.<ref name="HBTObit1936"/>
He was educated at Northfield High School in Northfield, Vermont. He then attended Norwich University (the Military College of Vermont) for 2 years before attending Dartmouth College, from which he graduated in 1879.<ref name="HBTObit1936"/>
==Career== After six months working in the Station Agent's office at the Bellows Falls railway station, he became a shipping clerk at $10 per week at Western Electric Company. He was the International department manager in 1897. He traveled to Japan in 1896 and subsequently initiated Western Electric's participation in the forming of Nippon Electric Company, Ltd., where his assistant, Walter Tenney Carleton became a founding director. Thayer soon became the general manager in New York City and later vice-president.<ref name="HBTObit1936"/>
He served as the 4th President of Western Electric from October 1908 to July 1919. He became vice-president at AT&T, ''American Telephone & Telegraph''. He left Western Electric Company in July 1919 to succeed his close friend Theodore Vail as president of AT&T. In 1920 the telephone system was de-nationalized by the Willis-Graham Act, freeing AT&T to acquire independent telephone companies.<ref>[http://hdl.handle.net/10919/28175 Ward, Robert C. Jr., The Chaos of Covergence: A Study of the Process of Decay, Change, and Transformation within the Telephone Policy Subsystem of the United States, chapter 7]</ref> Under Thayer, AT&T flourished as a regulated monopoly and spread into radio broadcasting. In 1925, the research activities of AT&T and Western Electric were consolidated into Bell Labs.<ref>[http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/15/AT-T-Corporation.html AT&T Corporation – Company Profile, Information, Business Description, History, Background Information on AT&T Corporation]</ref> In 1925, Thayer resigned the presidency and became board chairman at AT&T, continuing in that role until he resigned in 1928.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Thayer|first1=Harry Bates|title=Autobiography|date=June 1933|publisher=Not published|location=privately held}}</ref>
==Personal life== On April 26, 1887, Thayer was married to Carrie Motte Ransom (1864–1916) in Porter, New York. Carrie was a daughter of Eliza Jane (née Estes) Ransom and William Henry Harrison Ransom, a founder of Ransomville, New York (a hamlet in Porter). After living on Staten Island and then Kingsbridge, the Thayers settled in New Canaan, Connecticut, in 1903. Together, they had three children:
* Dorothy Thayer (1889–1946),<ref name="MrsNoble1946">{{cite news |title=Mrs. Floyd C. Noble |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1946/03/21/121622673.pdf |accessdate=21 January 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=21 March 1946}}</ref> who married Floyd Clark Noble, a son of Henry George Stebbins Noble (the president of the New York Stock Exchange from 1914 to 1919).<ref name="1913Engagement">{{cite news |title=Miss Dorothy Thayer's Wedding. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1913/05/04/100617164.pdf |accessdate=21 January 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=4 May 1913}}</ref> * Ruth Thayer (1892–1982), who married Webb William Weeks. After his death, she married her late sisters widower, Floyd Clarke Noble.<ref name="BPC1921">{{cite book |title=The National Magazine: An Illustrated monthly |date=1921 |publisher=Bostonian Publishing Company |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ytVOAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA126 |accessdate=21 January 2020 |language=en}}</ref> * John Alden Thayer (1895–1964), who married Dorothy Weeks Scudder, a granddaughter of U.S. Representative Henry Joel Scudder, in Suffolk Co. in 1917.<ref>{{cite news |title=Miss Scudder Weds on Friday. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1917/08/14/archives/miss-scudder-weds-on-friday.html |accessdate=23 March 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=14 August 1917}}</ref><ref name="1939Divorce">{{cite news |last1=TIMES |first1=Special to THE NEW YORK |title=DIVORCES JOHN A. THAYER; Former Dorothy Scudder Gets Reno Decree on Cruelty Charge |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1939/12/08/archives/divorces-john-a-thayer-former-dorothy-scudder-gets-reno-decree-on.html |accessdate=23 March 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=8 December 1939}}</ref> He was owner and editor of ''The Ridgefield Press'' and, later, mayor of Delray, Florida.<ref name="1957Gift">{{cite news |last1=Times |first1=Special to The New York |title=DARTMOUTH GIVEN JOHN ALDEN BIBLE; Volume Dating at Least to 1633 is Contributed by a Descendant of Pilgrim |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1957/12/15/archives/dartmouth-given-john-alden-bible-volume-dating-at-least-to-1633-is.html |accessdate=23 March 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=15 December 1957}}</ref>
Carrie Thayer died in New Canaan in May 1916.<ref name="MrsThayer1916">{{cite news |title=Died |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1916/05/27/archives/obituary-1-no-title.html |accessdate=23 March 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=27 May 1916}}</ref> After a long illness, Thayer died at his home in New Canaan on September 3, 1936.<ref name="HBTObit1936">{{cite news |title=H. B. THAYER DEAD; EX-HEAD OF A.T.&T.; President and Chairman of Telephone Company Retired. on 70th Birthday in 1928. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1936/09/04/88693340.pdf |page=19 |accessdate=23 March 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=September 4, 1936 |language=en}}</ref>
From 1937 until 2011 the primary dining facility at Dartmouth College was named Thayer Hall in honor of his service to the College, which included serving on the Board of Trustees.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.dartmouth.edu/~news/releases/2010/01/15a.html |title=Dartmouth Class of 1953 gift will revitalize dining and social space |access-date=August 2, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100309051229/http://www.dartmouth.edu/~news/releases/2010/01/15a.html |archive-date=March 9, 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==See also== * Telephone in United States history
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== *{{find a Grave|34733487}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thayer, Harry Bates}} Category:1858 births Category:1936 deaths Category:AT&T people Category:Dartmouth College alumni Category:Norwich University alumni Category:People from Northfield, Vermont Category:American businesspeople in the telecommunications industry